What's scarier than a murderer? Someone with the charisma to compel others to kill for them... or to kill themselves. Meet these cult leaders – and get an inside look at their beliefs and how they controlled others. Some cults, led by leaders like Ch...

In 2015, the Islamic State released a video of men smashing sculptures in Iraq's Mosul Museum as part of a mission to cleanse the world of idolatry. This book unpacks three key facets of that event: the status and power of images, the political impor...

There are two parts to every crime story: how they did it and why they got caught.This book is about the second part and how it changes the way we catch serial killers. No two stories about the capture of a serial killer are the same. Sometimes, the...

The Zodiac Killer, Son of Sam, Hillside Strangler and Dating Game Killer – in many ways, terrifying serial killers were as synonymous with the 1970s as Watergate, disco and the oil crisis. This fascinating collection of profiles presents the most not...

In 2011, Trinidad declared a state of emergency. This massive state intervention lasted for 106 days and led to the rounding up of over 7,000 people in areas the state deemed "crime hot spots". The government justified this action and subsequent poli...

Charles Manson was perhaps the most infamous criminal of the 20th century. Convicted for orchestrating the shocking Tate-LaBianca murders in 1969, and for two other killings, there has been much written about him. But not many people knew him as well...

On the morning of July 1, 1800, a surveyor and mapmaker named Cayetano Diaz opened the window of his study in Guatemala City to find a horrific sight: a pair of severed breasts. Offering a meticulously researched and evocative account of the quest to...

The malign and long-lasting influence of Chicago police commander Jon Burge cannot be overestimated, particularly as fresh examples of local and national criminal-justice abuse continue to surface with dismaying frequency. Burge's decades-long tenure...

Torture is an open secret in Chicago. Nobody in power wants to acknowledge this grim reality, but everyone knows it happens – and that the torturers are the police. Three to five new claims are submitted to the Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission o...